ANZ should have declared sacked trader ‘whistleblower’, court hears

A former ANZ trader is claiming the bank could have ‘vindicated’ him after incorrectly claiming he was involved in market manipulation.

Etienne Alexiou is back in court. Picture: Ella Pellegrini

An ex-ANZ trader says the bank could have “vindicated” him after incorrectly claiming he was involved in market manipulation by declaring he was actually a whistleblower, but it failed to act.

Etienne Alexiou is fighting to update his case against ANZ in the Federal Court, after claiming he was made a scapegoat and ultimately sacked for raising serious misconduct allegations about market manipulation involving ANZ’s participation in rigging the bank-bill swap rate.

ANZ claims Mr Alexiou was fired in 2015 due to offensive communications he sent via Bloomberg.

Mr Alexiou discontinued his case against the bank in 2016, before picking it up again in 2020. The matter has now been running for eight years.

The looming court fight with Mr Alexiou comes as ANZ faces a new scandal in its markets business, with the corporate cop investigating the bank’s role in a $14bn government bond placement last year.

Barrister for Mr Alexiou, Christopher Withers SC, told the court on Wednesday the bank knew his client made three complaints about nefarious conduct when it published a press release in November 2014 which said seven traders — including Mr Alexiou — were stood down amid an investigation by the corporate watchdog into possible market manipulation.

Former high-rolling banker Etienne Alexiou is suing ANZ. Photo: Nine News

“ANZ issued the press release because it knew (Mr Alexiou) had made the various complaints … so that he would be identified,” Mr Withers said.

He said the motive of ANZ in publishing the press release was to make Mr Alexiou a “scapegoat”, to discourage him from participating in an Australian Securities & Investments Commission probe as a whistleblower and to discredit him.

Mr Withers said it was open to the bank to “correct” the falsities they had made by taking “vindication actions”, but they failed to do so and his client is now asking the court to update his pleadings to accuse the bank of failing to: reinstate Mr Alexiou, to publicly identify him as a whistle blower, to publicly correct imputations made in the press release or to state that ANZ had no evidence Mr Alexiou engaged in market manipulation.

“At the time the standing down decision was made (when) the press release was published … ANZ was aware that (Mr Alexiou) had not engaged in contravening conduct,” Mr Withers said.

“(Mr Alexiou) had made complaints about contravening conduct. On that basis we plead … that the applicant was a whistleblower.

“ANZ did not have a reasonable basis to represent he was a target.”

Etienne Alexiou is suing ANZ bank. Picture: Luis Enrique Ascui

Mr Withers said the press release conveyed imputations that were false or misleading, and ANZ’s failure to take any of the “vindication actions” could trigger the Fair Work Act on liability claims. As well, the failure to take corrective action could go to potential aggravated damages.

Mr Alexiou is also seeking to update his claim with a new allegation that after ANZ published its press release, it was implied that he was one of seven staff who were being targeted by ASIC in their investigation and that ASIC had a proper basis to suspect the seven involved.

Barrister for ANZ, Kate Morgan SC rejected Mr Withers’s argument that his clients bid to update his pleadings was simply an extension of allegations already made.

“This is a multiplication of conduct that we say vastly expands the allegations and the amount of work that would now have to be done, in particular the vindications claims,” Ms Morgan said.

“What this pleading is trying to do … (is) a fundamental change in terms of scope,” she said.

If Mr Alexiou’s new claim that ANZ failed to vindicate him is allowed to be included in his pleadings, Ms Morgan said the defence would then be “trying to prove a negative”.

“The question will be who was the person responsible for the decision not to do something,” she said.

“The expansion will place considerable burden on ANZ.”

As well, Ms Morgan argued the change in scope would likely delay the trial date which is set to go ahead in September next year.

Mr Alexiou is also attempting to force a journalist from the Nine papers to handover documents from his reporting to work out how his identity was discovered and made public.

Federal Court judge Nye Perram has reserved his decision on the application.

Originally published as ANZ should have declared sacked trader ‘whistleblower’, court hears